It's Not What You Think
by Leveragelover
Summary: An old friend of Nates seeks help when her husband is murdered. How will Eliot react when it turns out to be someone he knows. "We can't get into this murder Nate or she will kill us...in the worst way possible"
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So this is my first mainly Eliot story...yippee! Anyway I don't own Leverage!**

_The Murder of Hugo Canalis_

"Eliot you're coming with me to meet the client" Nate commanded

"Why is it about some abuse or somethin'?" Eliot asked chewing on his apple.

"Sorta" Was all Nate said. Eliot shrugged and followed Nate down to McRorys. No one was in the bar since it was closed and Eliot found it slightly strange they were meeting when it was closed. A lady came up and tapped on the door and Nate opened it for her.

"Thank you so much for meeting me Nate" The lady said slightly out of breath

"Before you talk to me do you think you could tell Eliot over here what happened?" Nate said putting a friendly hand on her shoulder

"Eliot Spencer at your service, and who might you be?" Eliot said with his signature smile

"Jamie Canalis I'm an old friend of Nates" Jamie said shaking Eliots hand.

"Really you both worked in insurance?" Eliot asked

"No he chased me, I was thief, well I still sorta am but anyway I can't go to the police or I'd be in jail for-ever!" Jamie replied with a sense of humor

"Well here you can sit down and start tellin' me your story" Eliot said kindly pulling out the chair for her.

"So one day I'm just talking a casual walk in the park and I get a call from my husband Hugo. It wasn't him though it was a lady she said to come to 16th avenue to pick up my husbands corpse. I tried to ask her who she was or why she had done it or even what was going on. So I cautiously went over there and she stood in an alley. The thing that shocked me the most though was she was a teenager." Jamie said the pain, loss, and fear swimming in her eyes

"A teenager what do you mean?" Eliot asked confused

"13 or 14 not very old"

"Continue" Eliot commanded softly

"She has dark hair and brown or black eyes it was too dark to tell. Anyway my husband he-he-he lay on the gr-ound" Jamie chocked back sobs

"It's ok Jamie" Eliot comforted putting his arm around her

"She slit his stomach open..." Jamie cried. "He had cuts up and down his legs...And broken bones." Jamie tried to stay strong but the smells the memories the sights was just seared into her mind. "She carved 'No more chances' onto his left arm and 'You deserve this' on the right." Jamie finally broke down crying and Eliot rapped his strong arms around her.

Nate felt empathy with Jamie because he knew what it was like to lose someone. But it was worse on so many more levels because she hadn't been able to do anything she didn't know anything. His death was worse and probably much more painful. It really bothered him that a girl, not a man or a women, would do it.

"Jamie I have a few people I can call and some people I'll look into but I promise we will bring this man down in whatever way possible" Eliot assured his hands on her shoulders

"Thank you" She sputtered before wiping her eyes and walking out.

"You have people you can look into?" Nate asked

"Yeah I got 3 or 4. A really suspicious one just came in about a month ago from Rhode Island." Eliot muttered. "Why a murder?"

"Well I ran into her just yesterday and she told me what happened. I knew she could never get away going to the cops so we have to help her." Nate almost insisted

"Detective Bonanno couldn't help?" Eliot asked

"No she's done to much damage in Massachusetts that any cop we go to would turn her, in friend or not plus he doesn't do murder cases"

"Well you go tell Hardison and stuff. I gotta go get some stuff from my house" Eliot called across the room as he pushed open the door.

~At Eliots house~

Eliot went into his basement pulled back his fake wall walked into the room ripped up the floorboards and dropped down into a smaller room. Inside the smaller room were four blank walls and a ladder to get back up. Eliot pushed open the fake wall and it led into a small tunnel. It looked almost like an air vent but bigger. He crawled through until he got to a fork in the road and he went to the right to get the files. Once he got to the end of the right tunnel he pushed open the door, which brought him into, a small dusty room filled with files and bits and pieces from other jobs he had done. He went over to his file cabinet for murder grabbed the files of predators and bits and pieces from his encounters with them.

~At Nates House~

"Hardison I want you to pull up everything on Hugo Canalis" Nate called over to Hardison as he walked in

"Ok...give a second" Hardison said slowly his fingers flying across the key board. Sophie in the meantime was standing at the island with a glass in her hand. She swirled the amber liquid in the glass staring into it hopelessly. Her niece Jenna had just sent her a postcard saying that she was coming to Boston and she wanted to visit. God knows how she knew where she lived, her sister must've found out. Contrary to popular belief she was close with her sister and it might surprise people that's she actually had a sister.

"What's that?" Sophie jumped at the sudden noise

"What's what?" Sophie asked innocently

"That," Parker ripped the postcard from Sophie. Sophie tried to grab it from Parker but she ran out of reach holding it out in the air. Parker started to read the card and Sophie tried harder to get it back. "Dear Sophie I'm visiting Boston *dodge* I was hoping we could catch *dodge* up I'm staying at the Palestra Hotel room 660. I can't wait to catch up with my favorite aunt. Love Jenna"

"Give me that!" Sophie snatched it out of Parker's grip.

"You have a sister?" Hardison asked from his place at the table

"Yes" Sophie confessed. "But let's just focus on the job I want-" Sophie was cut off by her phone ringing. Her eyes widened when she say the number but she reluctantly picked up.

"How did you get my number?"

"Long story but I'm here in Boston so I was wondering if you wanted to come get coffee or something with me and mom?"

"Right now?"

"Yes right now"

"One second" Sophie muttered into the phone. "Hey Jenna wants to know if I can go to coffee with her. Is it okay if we post pone the briefing?"

"You got an hour Soph. Any later that and we start without you" Nate called across he room

"Thanks Nate!" Sophie called back happily

"I ca-"

"Who's Nate? Is he your boyfriend?"

"Uh-wha...we'll discuss this later"

"Golders coffee shop on 16th Avenue see you there in 5"

"K bye" Sophie hung up the phone and grabbed her purse. She walked quickly out of the apartment and down to her car. 16th Avenue was only 2 streets over so she arrived there quickly. Her sister was there and so was her niece.

"Sophie I'm so glad you are here!" Her sister said giving her a hug

"It's been so long Summer!" Sophie said happily

"I know we must catch up!" Summer said sitting down

"And Jenna I see you are still wearing colored jeans, red this time?" Sophie asked

"Yeah red's my favorite color" Jenna replied

"So how's Theo?" Sophie asked

"Good he's been traveling a lot lately so I don't get to see him much. Right now he's in Japan and he'll be there until the end of the month."

"That reminds me! Who's that Nate guy is he your boyfriend?" Jenna asked

"I'm gonna be completely honest in saying that he is not my boyfriend. I wish he was but he's not." Sophie confessed

"Too chicken to ask him out?" Jenna asked smirking

"No! He just isn't exactly the best person at being in relationships." Sophie said with narrowed eyes

"I thought you told me you were sle-" Summer started but Sophie kicked her under the table.

"Yes Summer I still am but that doesn't mean we're in a relationship" Sophie scowled

"You just keep tellin' yourself that" Summer retorted sarcastically

"Anyway, how's school going?" Sophie turned to Jenna

"Good my crazy teacher isn't coming back till next year, I'm so excited!" Jenna cried out happily

"Crackers Crondawl?" Sophie asked

"Yeah she's gonna be in Brazil till the need of the year!" Jenna said happily

"So did you just turn 14?" asked Sophie

"Yeah just in May" Jenna replied proudly

"Congrats"

~After coffee back at Nates~

"Ok everybody let's start the briefing! Hardison run it" Nate commanded

"Now our victim is Hugo Canalis and was supposedly murdered by a 13 or 14 year old. He was murdered on 16th avenue in this alley and nobody knows." Hardison said sadly. Sophie felt her stomach jump when Hardison said 16th avenue. She shuddered at the thought and snapped back to attention. "Hugo was 44 years old just any normal citizen why he was murdered is our mystery. His wife Jamie is a thief and she can't go to the police or she'll get arrested so she came to us. She knew Nate because she had been chased be him way back when. Now Eliot has some files on 3 people that could possibly work and Nate has some personal experience with her so my turn is done."

"Jamie stole probably over 100 pieces of famous art from Massachusetts alone in just the past 10 years. When you think about that it means 10 pieces a year give or take a few. She's about as good as Sophie but her style is nothing like hers. She gets in and gets out as quick as possible. I only caught her a handful of times since she was always moving. The times I did catch her I ended up being punched, stabbed, shot, mmm and I think I was poisoned once. She was a crazy bitch but she's sorta retired now so she's not as crazy. Eliot it's your turn now"

"Ok my first suspect is Mark Henderson 15 years old." A picture of a boy with buzz cut black hair appeared on the screen. It was extremely blurry but you could sort of make out his features. "His nickname is Switch Blade this is because he carries blades in his sleeves. So basically he flips the blades down from inside his sleeve and his hands and practically knives. One or two stabs and you're done. He's from New Mexico and has killed many of the residents along with illegal immigrants and some people in Mexico" The picture faded away and a picture of a blonde girl showed up. She looked like a ghost in the picture but it was taken on a crappy traffic camera at night. "Fiona Charlotte 15 years old and blonde hair. Her nickname is Monoxide."

"Like carbon monoxide?" Parker asked

"Yeah this is because she kills people and disappears into thin air. You don't know what's hit you until after you're dead. She's from North Dakota and his killed a lot of the animals and residents. She also kills up in Canada along with illegal immigrants also."

"That's our person" Nate said matter-a-factly. Sophie and Parker both rolled their eyes. She took a drink from her beer as Eliot just stared at Nate like he was crazy.

"You think she killed him?" Eliot exclaimed

"Well it fits she kills before they even know what hits them" Nate retorted

"Let me finish man! You had your turn" Eliot growled. Nate rolled his eyes and slumped back down in his seat.

"Our next suspect is one I just got report of in May. Her name is Liza Slayzer" A picture appeared on the screen of a brunette. Her hair was slightly wavy and her eyes were black. The picture looked like one from a newspaper so it was much clearer then the rest. In that split second of the picture showing up Sophie dropped her beer. Her mouth hung open in surprise, her eyes wider then humanly possible.

"Sophie what is it!" Nate asked urgently

"You know who she is don't you" Eliot said calmly. Sophie just turned to face Eliot still in extreme shock.

**A/N 2: By the way Liza is pronounced like Liza Minnelli...Anyway I'm not sure if I'll continue the story so let me know what you think :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thanks for all the reviews guys! I'm glad you like it so far :) It took a while to update because I got stuck on it halfway through. I don't own Leverage, obviously**

Trust No One

_Previously:  
>"You know who she is don't you" Eliot said calmly. Sophie just turned to face Eliot still in extreme shock.<em>

"She-she-she's my niece!" Sophie cried out in horror

"WHAT!" The team cried out in unison. Even Eliot was slightly surprised.

"You mean your niece killed Hugo?" Hardison asked bewildered

"I don't know maybe she did! Let's just hear what Eliot has to say" Sophie screeched

"Ok she's 14 years old and her nickname is Blood Hands. She lives in Rhode Island and attempted to murder her teacher last year. The city tried to keep the thing confidential but when a child pushes a teacher out a three story building everyone knows. She rips her victims to death with her bare hands and occasionally has a knife on her. She got the name because she puts her hands in the blood of her victims so she has blood hands. The she presses both hands to her face so she has blood hands on her face."

"She tried to kill Crackers Crowndal?" Sophie muttered to herself

"Did you say she tried to kill cracks crows?" Eliot asked confused

"No, she has a teacher she hates called Mrs. Crowndal and she nicknamed her Crackers Crowndal. I'm guessing that's the teacher she pushed out a window" Sophie said blandly

"You say it so casually" Eliot muttered

"How do we know it was her! I mean Jamie could've seen someone that just looked young." Parker asked confused

"Sophie you go talk to Liza, I'll try to get more info on Jamie. Hardison you try to find anything about the murder and Eliot and Parker you go do some investigating at the school. Let's go steal a ...go steal a...Umm" Nate trailed off

"Let's go steal my niece" Sophie corrected grabbing her purse and walking to the door.

"Uh yeah! Let's go steal Sophies niece!" Nate said clapping his hands and following Sophie.

~Later when Sophie is with Liza (Jenna)~

"So why is red your favorite color?" Sophie asked casually. She was sitting at her house with Liza and luckily her sister wasn't there so she could interrogate at free will.

"Honestly, because it's the color of love and the color of blood" Liza replied smiling a bit

"You don't mind blood?" Sophie asked slightly nervous

"No I actually laugh when they take my blood, you know how it tickles?" Liza asked laughing

"No..." Sophie shook her head slightly. "It feels like someone injected led into my arm"

"Whatever" Liza waved the subject off. "You like horror movies?"

Sophie shuddered at the thought replying smoothly, "No too gory"

"Aw c'mon that's the best part though" Liza almost coaxed

Sophie tried to keep her eyes from widening so she changed the subject. "Do you want some tea?"

"Nah I'm good" She replied blandly. Sophie hurried over to the kitchen muttering to the team over the coms.

"She likes blood I can tell you that"

"We need more Sophie" Nate demanded

"I'm trying! I can't act like I know everything"

"Ask her if she's heard about the murder on 16th avenue" Nate suggested

"But no one has"

"That's the point" She heard Eliot mumble

"Right, got it" Sophie confirmed before focusing on the tea.

"Who are these people?" She heard Liza call across the room holding her picture of the team in her hands.

"That's my team" Sophie replied honestly

"Which one's Nate?" Liza asked innocently

"Guess" Sophie replied simply now sitting next to Liza

"That one!" She Liza asked jabbing a finger at Eliot

"No..."

"This one" She tried again pointing to Hardison

"No..."

"This one?" She asked surprised

"Yeah that's Nate" Sophie replied taking the frame from her and hugging it to her chest.

She scrunched her nose in disgust of her Aunts choice in men. "Why do you like him?"

"Long story that I really don't feel like explaining right now." Sophie insisted getting up and checking on the tea. "I know you've only been in town for a little bit but have you heard about the murder on 16th Avenue?"

"A murder? On 16th Avenue that street we went to go have coffee at?" Liza asked in shock

"That would be the one" Sophie replied gravely

"No I hadn't heard. Who was murdered?"

"Hugo Canalis" Sophie almost spat

"Never heard of him. Well I'm sorry for him I'm sure he had no reason to be murdered. You only deserve to be killed for a crime of respectable portions. So if you kill some one then you deserve to be killed." Liza said like it was the most simple obvious solution to problems.

"I guess..." Sophie replied uneasily heading over to finish making her tea.

"Did you get that" Sophie hissed

"Oh yeah" Nate breathed

~On the other side of coms~

"Jamie can you please tell me everything you remember about the place where Hugo was killed" Nate asked

Jamie scowled at the thought. "Umm wavy red hair brown or black eyes. She was probably 5 foot 4 and had a jacket on I think it was leather, I don't remember though." She closed her eyes trying to think, "Someone else was there! Probably 5 foot 2 wavy hair but that's all I could tell from the faint outline of the streetlight. My husband stomach didn't look like it had been cut open though almost ripped open." She fought back a sob at the memory.

"Do you know of anyone that would have motivation to do it?" Nate asked quickly

"No he was just a good normal person had a day job at an office" Jamie replied simply

"Did he know about you being a..." Nate trailed off

"Oh me being a grifter...no" She hung her head in shame

"Was anyone trying to target you maybe it was payback" Nate suggested

"I bury anyone that's gone after me in a shallow grave" She growled

"Then why am I still here?"

"You were different Nate, you had something, some one, I was gone by the time it was taken away from you" She almost hissed evilly

Nate swallowed hard. "Ok so no one was targeting you or your husband. Got that. I will go talk to my team and get to work"

"Thanks Nate" Jamie smiled and walked out of the bar. Suddenly he heard a crash over the com.

"Sophie are you ok?" Nate asked quickly

"I'm fine Nate I just tripped and dropped my tea pot" Sophie whispered quickly

"Oh ok I thought she had attacked you" Nate breathed a sigh of relief

~Back on Sophies side of coms~

"Aunt Sophie are you alright?" Liza asked quickly rushing over to her

"Yeah li-" Sophie stopped "Jenna I'm fine"

Liza noticed her slip up and her eyes widened in anger. She slapped her hard across the face. "Who are you?"

"Shit!" Sophie cursed "That hurt!"

Liza smirked and reached over to her ear pulling out the com and putting it in hers. "Who is this?"

"Liza"

"You must be Nate"

"Yes and you're Blood Hands"

"So?"

"A man named Hugo Canalis was murdered just a fe-"

"Cut to the chase Ford I know what happened"

"I know who killed him"

"Who did?"

"Oh please don't even try to beat around the bush we both know that you did" Liza growled at the words and smashed the ear bud with her fingers.

"Liza please don't hurt me" Sophie whimpered backing away from her

"I won't hurt you Aunt Sophie unless you give me a reason too" Liza spat

"What would be a good reason?"

"Don't meddle in the business of the murder and we'll see who walks away alive" Liza nodded glaring at her before walking out the door. Sophie sputtered out the breath she was holding tight in her chest. It was official she could trust no one.

~At Nates~

"So I've hacked into the security footage from that night. Only one problem. The cameras were down during the murder and the time when Jamie picked up Hugos corpse. This is what happened after it, I haven't watched it yet so you might puke I'm not sure." Hardison and brought up the footage on the big screen. It showed the girl with the red curly hair leaning up against the wall looking over at Liza who was in the shadows.

~Flashback~

"I've killed him now where's my money you promised me Cora?" Liza spat

"It's in the trunk of my car don't worry" Cora assured

"I swear if you try to out con me of money I will rip your throat out and you know me" Liza hissed

"I'm aware" Core replied gravely

"I can't trust anyone around here these days you know" Liza gave a bitter laugh

"Yes well Johanna's dead we get you your money simple as that" Cora replied rolling her eyes

"Do you think his wife knew he was a thief?" Liza asked slowly inspecting the blood on her hands

"Probably not, she was a grifter herself I don't think he knew" Cora sighed

"Well Johanna should've know better then stealing from a Dinear."

"He should've known better that if he stole from a Dinear he'd hire a Crawford to kill him" Cora laughed at the joke

"Poor Johanna Felger should've known better" Liza replied with a nod

"C'mon let me get your money" Cora said walking out of the alley. They walked over to a black Honda and Cora opened the trunk and showed her suitcase with $50,000 in it.

"Thanks Cora we'll keep in touch" Liza thanked her, took the brief case and walked away.

~End of flashback~

"Hardison why isn't there any sound?" Nate asked quickly man

"I couldn't get any sound, it's a crappy traffic camera" Hardison raised his hands in defense

"Can you do facial recognition?" Parker asked sipping her drink

"I'll try" Hardison started typing on his key board little dots appeared on 'Coras' face and it came up with a box that said: Too blurry for facial recognition.

"What do we do now?" Sophie asked

"Parker, Hardison, and Eliot can go after her. She doesn't know them" Nate suggested

"She saw the picture I have of you guys and I told her it was my team" Sophie admitted

"Can't we just turn her over to the cops?" Parker asked

"She'll kill you before you even finish dialing the numbers" Eliot growled. Everyone turned to look at Eliot who had his arms crossed, scowling.

"How do you know?"

"Because Nate I've seen her kill people before. I've meet her before. She is not the sweet innocent little kid you think she is. She can rip someone's head off with her hands." Eliot glared at Nate

"That's impossi-"

Eliot scoffed at his naïvety. "No it's not I've seen it. We can't get into this murder Nate or she will kill us...in the worst way possible"

Sophie swallowed hard at the words. "After she crushed my com she said not to meddle in the murder and she wouldn't hurt me. She said if we did we'll see who walks away alive."

"But Jamie..."

"No Nate we can't get into this!" Eliot spat back

"I don't care!" Nate roared back

"We turn her over to the cops!" Eliot argued

"She'll go to jail!"

"I don't care I am not going to sacrifice me life for this person!"

"Then walk"

"I'm not gonna walk Nate. I'm not gonna let you die" Eliot hissed

"I'm not gonna die Eliot she's a kid"

"Didn't you hear what I said Nate she can rip your head off with her bare hands"

"I don't care! We are-"

"STOP!" Sophie screamed. Both of them shut their mouth to look at Sophie. She just stares at them her eyes red rimmed from them arguing. Nate and Eliot hung their heads in shame. "Now let's talk this over like civilized people or I will strangle you both!"

"Ok we're almost positive that Liza killed Hugo. Liza knows all our faces she knows we're trying to stop her. She will most likely kill us all if we meddle in the murder. Now some or one of us feels that she should go to jail. So let's take a vote who wants her to go to jail." Eliot and Sophie both raised their hands in agreement.

"Hey what was that?" Hardison asked

"What?" Nate furrowed his brow

"Did your furnace shut off?"

"It shouldn't have"

"It's happening" Eliot said wide-eyed

"What?" Sophie asked

"She's coming for us"

**A/N 2: I love a good ending :)**


End file.
